Strategy course paper - music streaming

1 minute read

Spotify Strategy Analysis (MS&E270)

Playing a new tune in a disrupted market

This work was done as a class project at Stanford for MS&E 270: Strategy in Technology Based Companies. Our team analyzed the competitive environment of the music industry, studied the strategy of Spotify through a few different strategic frameworks (for e.g. VRIN), and then took a shot at future recommendations. This culminated in a 30-page report, collecting information from various press releases, interviews we conducted, and industry reports on the evolution of the music & streaming industry. You can skim through the summary presentation below.

Or use this link to browse in a new tab as a PDF [Presentation]

Independent Study & Case Writing

I had followed up on this work as an independent study for credit under Prof. Kathleen Eisenhardt. The analysis was taken forward with a more in-depth breakdown of the fiendishly complex music industry, as well as a detailed look at Pandora’s history as an older player in the same space. This concluded with a contrast between these two companies, in the form of 5000 word attempted-HBR-style 😉 case studies.

Needless to say, I learnt a lot during this! Fun fact: early on in it’s roughest times, Pandora’s founder was rejected 350 times in pitches to venture capitalists. Feel free to contact me via email/twitter if you found this of interest, or would like to learn more! I can look into sharing/publishing those reports if needed.